The Morning Orange: Skill is expected in the Syracuse secondary ... but so, too, is confidence

Frank Ordonez/The Post-StandardJeremi Wilkes, one of Donnie Henderson's charges in the Syracuse University secondary, has been asked to play without fear this season by his new position coach.

Syracuse, N.Y.-- He’s one of the new members of Doug Marrone’s ever-changing staff, a fellow with a resume that stretches from here into the middle of next week. And among his many virtues is that he, Donnie Henderson, is a pragmatist.

“The thing I’m going to try to get them to do is be fundamentally sound and play with consistency,” Henderson recently said of those members of the Syracuse University secondary he’ll coach this season. “You have to play with confidence. If you can play with confidence, that’s half of the battle of being in the defensive backfield.

“When that ball gets behind us, nobody cares. That’s a touchdown. I don’t believe one play wins or loses a game, but I do believe one play can win or lose a guy. You know what I mean by that? When you get beat, your confidence goes down. You’ve got to have that thick skin and dust off and move on. I’m looking forward to the challenge. And I know they are.”

He’s 55 and on the verge of his 30th consecutive season -- one that will begin on Saturday when SU opens its 2012 campaign against Northwestern in the Carrier Dome. And when he trots onto that carpet before those fans who’ll gather for its first peek at Marrone’s fourth Orange edition, Henderson will do so with his own bank of confidence.

He has, after all, served as an aide at six schools (Utah State, Idaho, California, Arizona State, Houston and Southern) and for six NFL outfits (Baltimore, New York Jets, Detroit, Cincinnati, Jacksonville and Arizona). Why, the Jets and Lions liked Henderson so much that each organization employed him as its defensive coordinator.

So, the man has some moxie. More tangibly, he has a Super Bowl ring earned with the Ravens during the 2000 season. And so, he understands he will be watched by a lot of folks . . . including his players.

“They don’t know who that ring is,” Henderson said. “That was 12 years ago. I don’t wear it, so when you see me, you don’t see a Super Bowl ring. But they have a sense of who I am. They know where I’ve been. They know my bio. They’ve done their background on me just like I’ve done my background on them. Does it give me a little more authority, a little bit more security, a little bit more advantage to coaching them? You can’t take it away from me.”

Nor, at least for now, can you wipe that smile from Henderson's face.

“I’m happy with what I see,” he said. “We’ve got some athletes who can run, No. 1. But they’re physical. They have knowledge of the game. And the best thing is, they’re committed to Syracuse. You can’t ask for any more than that.”

Well, for starters, you can ask the Orange secondary to control Northwestern's passing game. In five days we'll learn if that was too much.

(In addition to his columns and "To The Point" observations, Bud Poliquin will begin virtually every morning, seven days per week, with an 8 a.m. offering of some kind or another on the Syracuse University football program. Look for it here on syracuse.com. Poliquin can be reached at bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)